PROVERO@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (Josh Rovero) (05/31/89)
Eric Green <elg@killer.dallas.tx.us> mentioned a problem with his A500, subsystem 500, CLtd Chronos SCSI controller and seagate st???N: >My setup has locked up 3 or 4 times a day with the green light stuck on >and the only way to reset being to turn off everything. I am running an A500, "old" CLtd sCSI controller, adaptec 4000A, and Seagate ST-225 (st-506). I also experience the steady green drive light on occasion, and have to wonder if it is not a feature or bug of the CLtd interfaces running with an A500. Gomf 3.0 doesn't catch any error; the system just locks up with the only symptom being a steady drive light. Anyone else having similar problems? Josh Rovero Internet: PROVERO@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL Packet: KK1D@WD4MIZ -------
mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) (05/31/89)
In article <16530@louie.udel.EDU> PROVERO@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (Josh Rovero) writes: >Eric Green <elg@killer.dallas.tx.us> mentioned a problem with his A500, >subsystem 500, CLtd Chronos SCSI controller and seagate st???N: > >>My setup has locked up 3 or 4 times a day with the green light stuck on >>and the only way to reset being to turn off everything. > >I am running an A500, "old" CLtd sCSI controller, adaptec >4000A, and Seagate ST-225 (st-506). I also experience the steady green drive >light on occasion, and have to wonder if it is not a feature or bug of the >CLtd interfaces running with an A500. > >Gomf 3.0 doesn't catch any error; the system just locks up with the only >symptom being a steady drive light. > >Anyone else having similar problems? Well, here's another one for the record; my setup is a Supra 4x4 on an A1000, with a Seagate ST277N. The lockup is most likely to occur during heavy disk activity (i.e., opening up a drawer that has lots of files in it). The "lockup" for me is a frozen pointer, dead disk drives (don't click no more), and the ever-friendly steady green LED on the front of the drive. I've called Supra about it, and they told me that the problem was with the PALs on my WCS board not being properly grounded. Suffice it to say that I've done the required grounding, and I am still getting these annoying lockups, although not as frequently now as I was in the past (but then again, I'm not using the computer really heavily at the moment). The one common thread in the three cases posted so far is the Seagate drive, but I hardly think that that's the reason, since they aren't all the same model or interface type (mine is embedded SCSI). It *IS* frustrating, no? -- - Mike Shawaluk (mikes@lakesys.lakesys.com OR ...!uunet!marque!lakesys!mikes) "Where were you on the night of August 12?"
baer@percival.UUCP (Ken Baer) (06/01/89)
In article <16530@louie.udel.EDU> PROVERO@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (Josh Rovero) writes: >Eric Green <elg@killer.dallas.tx.us> mentioned a problem with his A500, >subsystem 500, CLtd Chronos SCSI controller and seagate st???N: > >>My setup has locked up 3 or 4 times a day with the green light stuck on >>and the only way to reset being to turn off everything. > >I am running an A500, "old" CLtd sCSI controller, adaptec >4000A, and Seagate ST-225 (st-506). I also experience the steady green drive >light on occasion, and have to wonder if it is not a feature or bug of the >CLtd interfaces running with an A500. I had this problem bigtime recently. The only difference in the setup was that I was running on an A2000 (B2000 actually). The drive light thing tended to happen when was doing memory intensive stuff while saving to the hard disk (like rendering Animation frames). It took me 1.5 weeks to fix this, with numerous useless calls to CLtd, and endless hours of reformatting etc. You see, sometimes after that steady drive light, a partition would be missing. It happened a couple of times. So I got the current SCSIDos software (3.0) at great expense. That didn't fix it. I changed from FFS to old filesystem. That didn't do it. I went to only one partition. No go. Finally, as a last resort, I started swapping cards. I exchanged the 2-Meg memory card and the CLtd card. And now it works. Somehow they were interfering with eachother. In the process, I lost almost 2 weeks of development time, so I hope this never happens again. I think the major culprit is the CLtd card. >Josh Rovero Internet: PROVERO@WSMR-SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL Packet: KK1D@WD4MIZ > >------- -- -Ken Baer. // Hash Enterprises: Choosy Toons Choose Hash. \X/ USENET - baer@percival.UUCP, PLINK - KEN BAER, BIX - kbaer, "while (AINTGOTNOSATISFACTION) { do stuff }" - RJ Mical
glamdrng@pnet51.cts.com (Rocky Lhotka) (06/02/89)
I was having that problem - C-Ltd controller, ST251n drive. It turned out
that the drive was validating and C-Ltd mentions in their docs that this may
happen. Y
You are supposed to wait patiently for many minutes (hours?) for it to fix
itself. (according to the docs I have)
The problem seems to be caused when the computer is shut off/rebooted when
there is still outstanding I/O (writes) to DH0:... I ended up waiting until
'hell froze over' and finally gave up. I booted from another floppy which did
not go to the hard drive, manually mounted the hard drive and reformatted
it... Luckily I had fairly good backups...
I don't know if this is the problem, but if it is (or might be) let me know
and I will send you the C-Ltd document section dealing with this problem
(since they gave it to me on disk)
Rocky Lhotka
Glamdring, Sword of Mithrandir
UUCP: {amdahl!bungia, uunet!rosevax, chinet, killer}!orbit!pnet51!glamdrng
ARPA: crash!orbit!pnet51!glamdrng@nosc.mil
INET: glamdrng@pnet51.cts.comelg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) (06/02/89)
in article <668@lakesys.UUCP>, mikes@lakesys.UUCP (Mike Shawaluk) says: > In article <16530@louie.udel.EDU> PROVERO@wsmr-simtel20.army.mil (Josh Rovero) writes: >>Eric Green <elg@killer.dallas.tx.us> mentioned a problem with his A500, >>subsystem 500, CLtd Chronos SCSI controller and seagate st???N: ST157N. And I have some more info about that problem: My dealer called C Ltd., who said, "Try it in an A2000 and call us back." I did. I brought my 500 setup over there, put it into his 2000, it did the same thing. Swapped drive cables with his hard drive, still did the same thing. C Ltd. told him "Hmm, maybe interrupt propogation trouble on the board, set the disable_irq flag and we'll ship a replacement." disable_irq turns off all interrupts and multitasking while a disk operation is taking place. This is sort of a "hard drive nasty" mode... even glitches the screen occasionally, a'la vintage SupraDrive. However, the green-light-specials have stopped. The only nasty thing is that I can't use a modem while accessing the hard drive with disable_irq set... it turns off the RS232 port. Bummer. The plus side is that it improves performance. My top-end diskperf has risen to 552K write, 370K read, awefully close to the 600K/second that C Ltd. claims is the limit of the Kronus (or Kronos -- it's spelled both ways at different places in their documentation!). Considering that they only claimed 500K/sec with my combination, I'm satisfied. My first choice, the Microbotics Hardframe, won't work in a subsystem, alas. >>4000A, and Seagate ST-225 (st-506). I also experience the steady green drive >>light on occasion, and have to wonder if it is not a feature or bug of the >>CLtd interfaces running with an A500. Try disable_irq. If it stops, it's probably a bug in their software and we can all scream at C Ltd. > Well, here's another one for the record; my setup is a Supra 4x4 on an A1000, > with a Seagate ST277N. The lockup is most likely to occur during heavy disk Hmm, on the other hand, maybe it ISN'T the C Ltd.? Or do these folks crib from each other? -- Eric Lee Green P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509 ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg (318)989-9849 "I have seen or heard 'designer of the 68000' attached to so many names that I can only guess that the 68000 was produced by Cecil B. DeMille." -- Bcase
elg@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Eric Green) (06/03/89)
in article <744@orbit.UUCP>, glamdrng@pnet51.cts.com (Rocky Lhotka) says: > I was having that problem - C-Ltd controller, ST251n drive. It turned out > that the drive was validating and C-Ltd mentions in their docs that this may > happen. Nope. Wrong situation here. Typical example: I'm Quarterbacking my dh0: partition. I'm on disk 9 of a 13 disk set, my df0: clicking away, and -- FREEZE. Green light steady on the hard drive, every process with priority lower than the SCSIf-handler locked. My setup again: A500, C Ltd. Kronos, ST157N. "solved" using the Disable_IRQ in the DevSetup, but won't know if the problem is my board or their software until my dealer gets the replacement board. -- Eric Lee Green P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509 ..!{ames,decwrl,mit-eddie,osu-cis}!killer!elg (318)989-9849 "I have seen or heard 'designer of the 68000' attached to so many names that I can only guess that the 68000 was produced by Cecil B. DeMille." -- Bcase